Chinatown 2.0: Recent Episodes

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Olivia Xing is an actress, standup comedian, artist and student based in LA, and she recently did a one-hour comedy special called Party School where she told jokes about China, the US, politics in both countries, and the immigrant experience.

00:00 Teaser 00:44 Intro 02:48 How Olivia got started with her Party School comedy special 08:19 Chinese debate show 奇葩说 12:12 How Chinese comics and rappers deal with censorship 16:26 Olivia's biggest takeaways from her comedy special 18:38 Richard's favorite jokes from Olivia's comedy special 23:29 ESL comics: English-as-a-Second-Language comics 25:13 Minority comics shouldn't pander to stereotypes just to get laughs 30:02 Fellow professional comics she admires 32:36 Cultural outlets for the Chinese diaspora 35:25 Why there are so few male ESL comics 37:33 Recommendations of ESL comics to follow 42:45 How Olivia deals with bombing on stage

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Indigo was co-founder of Sina Weibo, or China’s Twitter. After Weibo, he started doing angel investments and incubating new projects. One of his main investments included the largest off-line art selling platform in China. Recently he got into the world of web3 and NFT. He writes a blog about frontier tech, and teaches online courses on stock investments in these areas. He is based in Vancouver.

I spoke to him about China’s startup environment since 2009, his takeaways from doing angel investments, his views on web3 especially NFTs, and his observations of target countries of Chinese immigration.

02:24 Indigo's work at Weibo, post-Weibo investments, and classes on Web3 & investing

08:35 Phases of development of China's internet sector

11:08 Streaming commerce

17:14 Exit of venture capital from China

19:06 How young people in China today are evaluating a career in entrepreneurship

22:12 Out-migration from China: Evaluating Singapore, Japan, Vancouver

29:28 Indigo’s advice for making angel investments: sourcing via personal connections, working on a platform full of entrepreneurs

32:23 Why streaming commerce is popular in China and not in the US

35:39 Three uses for NFTs: digital collectibles, creator royalty, soulbound tokens

46:08 Indigo’s life vision includes continually getting involved in businesses with young people

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Peng Dang is a standup comedian based in Texas. Peng moved to the US from China in his twenties, speaks absolutely impeccable English, and more importantly, tells jokes like a local pro. I find his sets funny, educational, and wholesome. I’m not sure if a comedian wants to hear their jokes described as “wholesome,” but I mean that as a compliment.

We talked about how his English got to be so good, what life was like for him in Alabama, Atlanta and Dallas, how he honed his comedic skills, his views on "freedom of safety" on China's streets, the infamous Tony Hinchcliffe incident, and more.

I hope you enjoy listening to this episode. Feel free to like, share and subscribe!

0:00 Peng’s standup about Chinese builders

1:52 Blue material

5:54 How Peng got started in standups

6:39 Standup about Chinese railroad builders in the US

8:15 Peng learned to speak English by listening to punk rock while in China

14:37 Standup about kung-fu

15:23 Spending time in Alabama and Atlanta

21:37 Standup about the Chinese language

23:39 Gun safety and crimes in America

27:30 Standup comedy TV shows in China

29:30 Overrated comedians

32:34 Tony Hinchcliffe racial slur incident

38:51 What advice Ronnie Chieng gave Peng

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Amy Yu is a bilingual standup comedian based in Canada.

We talked about how standup comedy changed her life, how she thinks about telling jokes in Chinese vs telling in English, and how to properly tell a dirty joke.

I also had a pretty serious debate with her about the role of artificial intelligence in comedy.

0:00 Amy’s standup set

01:04 Debating the role of AI in art creation

22:31 How comedy helped Amy with mental health

28:17 How to deal with bombing on stage

31:48 Amy’s (and Richard’s) comedic influences

37:02 Telling jokes in Chinese vs English

38:32 Jokes about going on a date with a Chinese American

39:40 Blue material

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Dan Chan is a magician that has performed at corporate events at fortune 100 companies and lavish parties hosted by celebrities. He recently got to perform for Elon Musk at the PayPal 20-year reunion party, hosted by Peter Thiel.

Prior to his illusionist career, he was an employee at PayPal, where he met Thiel.

Dan has also been grooming his 14-year old son to become a magician, who has been doing his own $1000 shows in the San Francisco Bay Area.

We talked about how Dan decided to become a magician, how he received his training, his experience of tiger-parenting his son to learn magic tricks, how he found success in Zoom-based magic shows after Covid dropped all his bookings, his plans to build a private VIP magic mansion in the bay area, and his plans beyond magic.

0:00 Dan's magic

2:24 Dan at Paypal

05:13 Starting out performing magic at local libraries

08:47 Dan studied at a clown conservatory

09:24 Dan disliked studying but enjoyed magic

11:58 Teaching his son to reverse-engineer his success

13:49 Dealing with flops

14:42 How Covid made him pivot into Zoom magic

16:28 Plans to make a private magic club in the Bay Area

20:42 Tiger-parenting his son for the career of a magician

23:15 Plans to become a better speaker, do a TED talk and write a book

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Alec Sorensen is a career coach who helps people take action on life-changing business ideas they've been putting off.

Alec is also a follower of the Mormon church, a Japan-living American at one point, a California-to-Texas transplant, among other things.

We discussed how he got into career coaching, his faith, cultural shocks in Japan, why he moved to Austin from the Bay Area, and more.

0:00 Intro

1:20 Alec as a Coach: His thoughts about the coaching industry, and how he uses habit building techniques to help people achieve their goals

12:18 Growing up as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and thoughts on the Broadway show The Book of Mormon

20:26 Joseph Smith's controversy: His spiritual experience and his motives of starting the Mormon church

27:21 The question of polygamy: Does the current church endorse it, and the logic behind the practice

31:59 The Mormon church hierarchical order and how apostles are selected

35:39 Religion vs Crypto: They are both a commitment to fulfilling an unrealized vision

40:48 Alec's experience as a missionary in Romania

45:53 Missionary KPIs and follow-up of new converts

49:44 Alec's experience in Japan: Learning a new language, and living in a remote village

53:35 Chinese vs American parenting: Expectations of parents of their children, and why economic factors allow for more flexibility

58:44 Replaceability of the working class, China vs US

1:03:34 Japanese stereotypes that proved true during Alec's stay in Japan

1:11:38 Alec's experience as a crisis counselor for male rape survivors

1:18:46 Alec's opinion on microdosing and other mushrooming techniques used in counseling

1:19:28 Illegal drugs, coffee, tea and sodas: Why the church frowns on their use

1:21:57 Coaching: Why coaching, Insecurities, Working with clients to get them results

1:31:47 Decision to move to Austin: All the pros

1:38:08 How he gets clients from conducting pilots

1:48:30 Conversations in Austin vs conversations in the Bay Area

1:51:37 Cognitive dissonance: How some champions for change in the Bay Area are somehow ill-prepared to pivot when confronted by people of different opinions

1:54:43 Argument for the legitimacy of Russia's invasion

1:58:54 Outro

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(Episode in Mandarin)

Karol Guan is an entrepreneur. This interview was recorded in Nov 2020. At the time she was co-founder of HelloAva.co, a startup that recommends skin care products based on a combination of AI and doctors. Karol studied Fashion/Apparel design at Parsons School of Design in New York City.

We discussed how the 2020 Covid both helped her startup grow and presented challenges to the way she worked, how she felt about being a woman in the male-dominated startup space, how her training as an artist and creator at Parsons prepared her for entrepreneurship, how she felt about sexual harassment in the venture space and beyond, the career paths of her friends that have returned to China, and more!

0:00 Intro

02:34 HelloAva is the StitchFix for cosmetics

11:41 Rewards and challenges for being a startup founder

16:01 Dealing with messy logistics at her startup during Covid

25:52 Women in startups 36:53 Sexual harassment in venture

45:54 Finding one's calling in life

1:09:45 Reflecting on career paths of friends returning to China

1:14:56 Being Cantonese

1:22:05 Karol asks Richard about his takeaways from hosting Chinatown 2.0

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Erin Cuellar is Director of Operations at STERIS, a manufacturer of medical devices. At the time of the interview, she was senior operations manager at the same company, and her role was essentially that of a plant manager.

Her responsibilities included supervising teams, managing KPIs, and maintaining quality controls.

Erin comes from a very different world than I do. She dropped out of college, worked at a local manufacturing site, joined an apprenticeship program, got her journeyman’s card which is sort of like a full license to practice in the trades, and moved from state to state for employment in manufacturing.

In the course of 13 years, she moved between five different states. At least one of the moves was the result of a plant shutdown thanks to outsourcing.

But Erin and her family, which includes a husband and three children were fully resilient in transitioning to new homes, new jobs, and new schools.

In fact, about a year after our interview, Erin moved to Pennsylvania to become Director of Operations at her company. I became interested in the trades in recent years after noticing and following the works of Mike Rowe and Andrew Yang, who both highlight a change in the mix of American jobs available as well as people willing to undertake those jobs.

In the US, there just seem to be fewer opportunities in the trades sector, and even fewer young people looking to enter those fields.

Mike Rowe looks to encourage the youths to get into these areas, whereas Andrew Yang sees the loss of these opportunities as the force that hollowed out middle America, which disenfranchised large swaths of the population, leading to rising support for the wings of the political spectrum.

In today’s conversation, Erin and I talked about what it's like to work in a manufacturing plant, her experience of working in the trades as a rare species of a woman, her moves around the country in pursuit of various manufacturing jobs, how does she think about raising her kids, and why she thinks it's a good idea for young people to consider a career in the trades.

As usual, don't forget to like, subscribe and ring the bell on our YouTube channel. Thank you.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/sRU5EZbSKVw

0:00 Intro

3:54 Erin's current job as a Senior Operations Manager at a medical device company: What they build, reporting structure and the size of the organization

6:00 The inside of a plant: Material acquisition, assembly lines, and shipping

7:07 Plant manager's role: Supervising teams, managing key performance indicators (KPIs), and quality control

8:08 Erin's background: Born and raised in Michigan, dropping out of college, starting work at a local manufacturing site

9:56 Joining the apprenticeship program: Why she chose to become a millwright

13:26 What is a line in manufacturing

14:14 Interviewing and getting accepted into the millwright program as the first and only female in 80 years of the facility existence

15:20 The definition of a journeyman

17:19 Getting her journeyman's card: Its significance, sexism, and empathetic team members that led to her breakthrough

25:15 Discrimination against minorities in a largely caucasian work environment

26:04 Moving to Florida after plant closing: Being turned down for welding jobs because she was a woman

27:26 Starting on the path of leadership, understanding lean manufacturing

28:11 Moving to Kansas, being promoted to production manager, building a new team from scratch in 3 months

29:34 Why Sunrise Medical Company merged their Florida and Kansas City plant

30:42 Sunrise Medical plant closure, going to Ink Jet, then Sealy Mattress, headhunted by AGCO, moved to rural, non-diverse North Central Kansas

33:28 Erin's experience in China: Working with a global team, wearing uniforms to work

39:52 Getting called by Tesla: Moving from Baltimore to California, finishing her master's degree and leaving Tesla

42:13 Dealing with frequent movement as a family; leaving new relationships behind, the exposure to different cultures and experiences

44:19 What Erin's kids want to become in the future: Promoting skilled trades as an alternative path to going straight to college

48:24 The argument that there's perceived instability going into trades: Factory closures, automations

50:42 How the constant moves affected the kids; their request not to move until they are done with high-school

52:06 Outro

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Bruce Wang is a Chinese cowboy. Not an ethnically Chinese person that was born in Texas, but someone born and bred in Yunnan, China.

He came to the US as a college student. He adopted a Southern accent, started dressing like a cowboy, and started making videos about how cowboys spend their time.

We talked about why he decided to become a cowboy, why he felt the cowboy culture reminded him of his hometown of Kunming, how he felt different when speaking a different language, and how he dealt with an identity crisis.

We also talked about whether he has encountered acts of racism and racial ignorance, his plans to dedicate his Ph.D. to the intersection of languages and cross-cultural understanding, and more.

As usual, don't forget to like, subscribe and ring the bell on our YouTube channel. Thank you.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/-TkXroQrF5M

0:00 Intro

2:42 How he became a Cowboy: learning the accent, using media as an entry point into the cattle industry

4:53 Taking the opportunity to build a channel for beef import to China during Trump's government, failure from trade wars

8:28 The unique choice of being a Chinese Cowboy, without precedence or contemporary references

10:17 Attracted to the Southern accent and persona, reminds him of his hometown

14:52 The appeal of Southern Culture: earthiness, humbleness and backwardness, values

17:26 Why he didn't like America: Outsider looking in biases and an undergrad that he hated - engineering

21:11 A surgery that changed his judgemental views on a society that he hadn't taken time to understand

23:44 Family and friends reaction to his change in accent and persona

24:49 Racism: A different experience as a Chinese person & Chinese Cowboy from locals and being weird from a Chinese counterparts perspective

28:21 Bruce experience in Texas, a Parallel to his hometown: Border town - illegal immigrants, drug cartels, "elephants in the streets"

32:18 Bruce's plan of pursuing a Ph.D. in culture, languages and sociology

39:29 How he made friends with other cowboys: Knowing the real person, beyond race and stereotypes

42:25 Bruce's view on tolerance in the cowboy community towards liberal ideologies and values

45:24 We are addicted to bad news: Why fear-mongering thrives in mainstream media

48:39 Buddhist philosophies and scientific research, foundational to keeping Bruce grounded

50:01 Plans after his Ph.D. and how the cowboy persona ties into his research, and interesting link between sound and human connection and thinking

1:01:08 Outro

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Chris Tay is a successful serial entrepreneur who made his riches in restaurant supply chain solutions and consumer packaged goods businesses in Asia, mostly mainland China.

He has been hustling hard since 1994, so he has an extremely long resume. He started at least four businesses and led sales efforts at pan-Asian conglomerates, such as 康师傅 Kang Shi Fu and 伊利 Yili.

Soon after graduating university in Texas in 1992, he started Singapore’s first handmade burger restaurant chain modeled after Johnny Rockets in the US. He sold that business a few years later for a few million dollars.

Then he caught the Internet wave in the 90s, and started an online company to help Japanese hot-bath businesses buy supplies. He later sold that business for a few million dollars.

Later, he headed up sales for various consumer packaged goods conglomerates such as 康师傅 and 伊利.

He is currently working on his new consumer packaged goods startup.

Chris is originally from Malaysia. Despite being ethnically Chinese, he didn’t know the language before entering the China startup scene. But through dedicated and rigorous training, he now speaks like a local.

Besides being wildly successful, Chris is humble, generous, and full of wisdom, as you will hear from this episode.

My friend Mike Yan interviewed Chris in Shanghai. Mike is in the venture capital space in China.

They discussed: the idea of the more people you know, the luckier you get; why he wants to treat all his business acquaintances with humility; what it's like to build a B2B internet startup in late nineties; how he adapted to the local business culture in order to win businesses from the Japanese; and much more.

As usual, don't forget to like, subscribe and ring the bell on our YouTube channel. Thank you.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/l4sSeHtk_R0

0:00 Intro

3:03 The more people you meet, the luckier you get

6:41 Chris' first startups: Fundraising from family and friends

10:23 Why Chris' parents expected him to become a doctor, didn't support his dream of graduating as an astrophysicist

11:23 Don't get married before 30 and not working for other people; Chris parents' valuable philosophy

12:22 The 3 people that change your life; parents, your first respected teacher, and your first real boss

13:57 Failing in the first 3 months of starting a Mexican restaurant; lacking management skills and being arrogant, capital miscalculations

18:40 Bringing Jonny Rockets to Singapore with a twist; innovating flavored Coke, and becoming profitable

22:26 Hiring people to cover your disadvantage and inexperience

23:50 Benchmarking with international franchises by not reinventing the wheel, leveraging relationships & a whole lot of creativity to survive

27:17 Sour partnerships, managing cashflows in restaurant businesses, and having people who believe in you

34:53 Getting IT startup capital from the Rothchilds, challenges introducing POS tech in restaurant business, and a simple solution that ensured the use of the software end-to-end

47:24 A failed business model pivots into software business; a different experience doing business with the Japanese - KTV Sessions

55:25 The innate selfishness in human behavior; the reason why B2B models don't work

59:00 Chris has never been cheated in China: Investing in China with no experience

1:01:21 Chris' diverse background: Growing up in KKK Waco, Texas; Islamic school; Buddhism and Taoism; Sikhism; and Southern Baptist graduate school

1:07:48 The most important 'people' decision: family and business partners

1:09:33 Why Chris prefers ladies running companies; their threshold for pain is higher

1:10:45 Why I didn't want to be in the family business and why family businesses don't last for generations

1:13:02 People don't have to come back to China to be successful: Why the choice to establish roots in China was easy, over Malaysia, India or Indonesia

1:19:20 Learning how to establish a foreign company in China: Recognizing the need to learn from others and having no ego

1:30:10 A wake-up call: Nobody is going to be loyal to you other than family, money is important to achieve your goals and for philanthropy

1:40:21 Leadership styles in China vs US' hero culture

1:43:46 Lessons from big food companies: Managing family and company politics to maintain support from the board, nominal room for mistakes for a big company vs a startup

2:04:41 Resigning from a job on the first day: Why it's important to work where you can have impact

2:12:36 Selecting a team, managing high employee turnover and the art of negotiating with suppliers

2:20:30 The fundamentals of fundraising, what to focus on as CEO at different stages of the business and transitioning out of company positions

2:25:11 The skillset Chris needs to lead a new startup and leveraging what he doesn't have in team members

2:36:12 Outro

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Stephen Tse is the founder and CEO of a Blockchain project named Harmony. For those new to Crypto and Blockchain, Harmony is a protocol that allows trustless smart contracts. Think of it as a new technology stack on the internet that allows users of computer programs to verify the results by themselves, instead of trusting whoever is serving these programs to the users. At the time of recording, Harmony ranks top 100 in terms of market capitalization for all Cryptos.

Stephen also runs a weekly get-together for entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Participants are mostly Crypto-centric founders, although not exclusively so. The organization is run a bit like a Christian fellowship, except that people don't get up and take turns to describe their relationship with God. Instead, they take turns to talk about their journey in entrepreneurship. And instead of reading scriptures when they get together, they pitch their businesses, ask for help and share best practices as well as past failures in business.

Every time I leave one of these events, I feel thoroughly rejuvenated, and this is all thanks to Steven's leadership. He has a way of making sure everyone feels included and inspired at these events. And I believe he applies this to the way he runs his organization.

Stephen and I covered a lot of ground in our chat today.

We talked about him being raised on a pig farm in Hong Kong, where he had a free-spirited childhood, how he decided to start this weekly entrepreneurial get-together and why he felt it was important for him to be this extreme matchmaker for these events, and how he sees culture building for startups.

He was very open about his past struggles with aimlessness in his career and bumpy personal relationships.

We covered how he saw China's rise in its startup scene from the lens of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and lastly why he felt it was important to give your kids freedom to explore so that they don't peak too early.

In the end, we also had some fun speaking Cantonese. Enjoy!

As usual, don't forget to like, subscribe and ring the bell on our YouTube channel. Thank you.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/eqYzbcvZXbI

0:00 Intro

3:23 Growing up in a pig farm in Hong Kong: Parents immigration story, Starting to read outside textbooks at 10 years

8:24 Moving to Vancouver: Trying to fit in in school, self-consciousness, lacking in specific school skills

10:42 Watershed age at ten years of age

11:32 Happy-go-lucky vs a hyper tracked childhood

13:57 Learning from the example of grounded yet free-spirited parents on kindness and hard work

15:05 What influenced his path, having no "guiding light," to getting his PhD and becoming a founder

16:59 Useful vs destructive obsession with computers for kids

19:37Leadership experience and challenges running TGI (entrepreneur social gathering) pre-pandemic and during the pandemic

24:00 The importance of authentic culture building and Stephen's strong attachment to the number "1"

30:27 Downtime: the "walkabout" periods of Stephen - Uncertainties in career, challenges finding a compatible partner, and physical discomforts

36:13 The benefits of bootstrapping community to set up a business: Isolation is the dream killer

40:24 Inevitable feeling of comparing oneself to others

42:11 The inspiration from China's startup scene: Speed of Shenzhen - a sense of hunger and foolishness

44:16 Thoughts on Silicon Valley lagging behind in terms of dreamer mentality and work ethic compared to China

46:52 The pros and cons of the possibility of doing business in China in the future especially in FinTech and Blockchain

48:11 Thoughts on keeping up with China's developments and innovations in FinTech eg CBDC

51:21 Family & parenting: How to replicate rewarding elements of an immigrant child to a generation that hasn't experienced and won't experience the immigration story

52:45 Un-schooling and un-parenting: Not peaking too early, the benefits of exploration and unstructured time

57:23 Discussion in Cantonese: Stephen doesn't think he's peaked; how he improved his game of tweeting/writing in English

1:00:23 Summary of the discussion in Cantonese: Treating everyday as Day 1, setting a good example for your children and learning English

1:01:11 Final words on always having the mindset of everyday being "Day 1"

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John Stevenson is a Black American who grew up home-insecure, but later graduated valedictorian of his high school. He went to Dartmouth and later graduated from the Political Science program at the University of Chicago. He now owns a yoga studio, does contracts for various government agencies. And he has ambitions to run for governor of Maryland.

Today we talk about his experience as a homeless person growing up. So he would be adding his unique perspective from that particular angle as well. His views of China from his vantage point, having worked in Washington DC, the state of Black politics, including his views on Black Lives Matter, and his plans to run for office and the reason for choosing Maryland at his home base. This will become apparent as the conversation unfolds.

You will notice that in future conversations, including this one, we might deviate from China, Chinatown or Chinese diaspora topics. Enjoy!

0:00 Intro

5:05 Ambition for Political Career: reasons to go into politics

8:38 Questions on the relative competitiveness of the US in the world stage

18:53 America's vs China's foreign policy

21:02 Government Systems: Reflections on Democracy and Autocracy in the US, China, and other parts of the world

26:51 Decades of white nationalist rule in high black population density areas

30:15 Comments on Multiracial and cultural heritage

33:57 Inequality and Desegregation

39:16 Born in Louisiana, Family, Childhood, and grown-up stories

44:18 “No shared vision of the future” as one of the reasons of Most American Divorce

1:01:57 What does homelessness and food security mean to you?

1:08:22 Biased assumption toward people of homelessness at different levels

1:13:38 Critique on the tendency in which people take poverty as the proof that there is something wrong with them

1:26:15 Distrust toward public institutions

1:39:18 John’s plan in pursuit of his political vision

1:41:53 Politics in Graduate School: Black people did not graduate from UChicago, political science department, for 14 years because they all dropped out

1:50:47 Anti-fascist movements

1:53:51 Left wing vs Right wing activities: should we be alarmed

1:59:17 Black Lives Matter

2:03:57 There should be a pluralist vision on “Black Live Matter”

2:07:07 What do you think are the Reasons that black folks support Donald Trump?

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On today's Chinatown 2.0, I speak with Ellen Lee Zhou, or 李爱晨, a two-time candidate for San Francisco mayor, in 2018 and 2019.

She ran as a conservative in a city where the mayor had been a Democrat for the last half a century. On top of her “non-mainstream” political ideologies, she had zero experience holding public office and raised very little money compared to her competition.

Despite all this, she won 4% of the votes in 2018, and 13% of the votes in 2019. And in 2019, she was second place in the race.

Ellen is a staunch supporter for Donald Trump, as will be quite obvious to those of you watching the video interview.

We discussed her experience running for the mayor of San Francisco. We also talked about issues in San Francisco such as homelessness, drugs, crimes, high property prices, deteriorating standards in public education, government corruption, voter fraud, and more. For most of these items, we also talked about solutions put forward by Ellen.

We also briefly touched upon Ellen’s day job as a behavioral health clinician, where she works with doctors and nurses to treat the mentally ill.

Lastly, Ellen talked about her circumstances when she first immigrated to the US as a teenager some thirty years ago.

As usual, don’t forget to like, subscribe and ring the bell on our Youtube channel. I hope you enjoy the interview.

Ellen’s 2019 campaign website: https://ellenformayor2019.com/
Ellen on Ballotpedia: https://ballotpedia.org/Ellen_Lee_Zhou

0:00 Teaser

0:21 Host monologue

3:33 Neighborhood coalition nominated her mayoral candidacy after acknowledging her outspokenness to fight opening of cannabis shops in Chinese areas

7:19 Her family dismissed her 2018 campaign given her lack of resources and experience

11:21 Supporters praised her courage to run and opponents mocked her efforts

12:23 Harassment by politicians and animosity from anti-Trump colleagues during her campaigns

14:50 Homelessness problem: drugs / out-of-city homeless people came for city's generous welfare / ineffective government spending to tackle homelessness

19:10 Walking through how a homeless person gets shelter and benefits from SF

20:39 Ellen's plan to tackle homelessness

24:20 Breakdown of different types of homeless people that ought to receive different kinds of help

29:21 Plan to run for mayor again if a special election takes place in 2021

30:14 Eight San Francisco city officials indicted in recent corruption probe

31:56 Sex trafficking and prostitution problems

34:22 How homeless people get money to buy drugs

37:22 Carjacking in SF

38:12 Lowell school's temporary replacement of meritocratic admissions with lottery & CA's Prop 16

43:06 Election fraud hurts mayoral candidates outside the right political circle

49:37 Discussion of her religion background as part of her candidacy

51:18 Problem of short housing supply has to do with City government sponsored free lawsuit service for tenants

53:44 Immigrating to SF from China as a teenager, knowing zero English and working as a seamstress

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Lin Yang is a grassroot political organizer who also works in tech. Lin had a full-time job working for Howard Schultz, helping him explore a presidential run. For those unaware, Howard Schultz was the founder and previous CEO for Starbucks.

Lin also participated in campaigns for President Obama and Senator Ted Lieu from California. He also worked as a journalist in Asia for a while, writing articles for various newspapers like New York Times when was stationed in Taiwan, and the Strait Times in Singapore.

Lin is also the founder of a local newspaper for the town of Sammamish, where he currently lives. He started the paper after seeing that a lack of objective information led to a local election where the citizens were either uninformed or misinformed.

Lin is a Joe Biden supporter. Today we discussed his experience campaigning for elections, working as a journalist in Asia, how he started a local newspaper, why he wanted to vote Biden, and his view on the contentious California proposition of Prop 16 that wants to re-introduce racial preference in public employment and public education.

As usual, don’t forget to like, subscribe and ring the bell on our Youtube channel. Thank you.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/hc2f9BZ52hA

• Newspaper of Lin's hometown (Sammamish, Washington): https://sammamishindependent.com/

• Podcast associated with the Sammamish Independent newspaper: https://anchor.fm/indyonair

• Letter from Howard Schultz about his decision to not run for President: https://www.howardschultz.com/onwardwithgratitude/

0:00 Teaser
0:46 Host monologue

4:07 Breakdown of left-leaning vs right-leaning students at Harvard's public policy school
3:37 Enjoying grassroot politics by doorbelling for Obama
7:47 Discussion of whether the left tends to encourage people to vote more than the right
12:31 Observation of efficient and trustworthy elections in Taiwan
14:46 Helping Starbucks founder Howard Schultz explore a Presidential run
22:44 Becoming a journalist in Asia - wild goose stories in Singapore / Foxconn coverage in Taiwan
28:48 Started local newspaper in hometown (Sammamish, WA) to combat mis-information that influences local elections
35:33 Supporting Biden for his bi-partisan, centrist platform, similar to Howard Schultz's approach
42:30 Enumerating good policies during Trump years
46:24 Debate on California's Proposition 16 that will reintroduce racial preference to public employment and public education

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Wei Luo quit his software engineering job to become a contractor in 2006. After 14 years, he had a business (based in San Francisco Bay Area) consisting of 50+ employees and multiple business lines, including home renovation, interior design, cabinetry and appliances.

Wei shared with us how he persuaded his parents to pursue a new career with seemingly low barrier to entry, challenges and turning points of his business, a severe problem of labor shortage in the contracting field, a squeeze on margins due to regulatory pressure from sino-US tensions, and more.

Don't forget to like, share, subscribe, and ring the bell (YouTube)!

HB Kitchen & Bath: https://www.hbkb.us/
Alice Cabinetry: https://www.alicecabinetry.com/

0:00 Teaser
0:35 Host monologue
2:31 Guest self-intro
4:33 Getting into contracting business after helping handyman roommate with limited English skills
8:34 Making the decision to get a license and "do things the right way"
10:12 Transition from computer engineering to contracting, and convincing parents to make the jump
15:16 Description and evolution of multiple business lines: renovation, design/retail, cabinetry and appliances
22:46 Recap of duration of running the business, team size, number of projects
24:02 Initial friction to earn respect from laborers that dismiss leaders that don't work in the field
27:04 Challenges in recruiting new blood given a plethora of options and aversion to blue collar work
28:47 Suggestion for running home renovation summer camp for teens
32:52 Contracting going O2O
34:30 Growing up as a natural leader among kids and unhappiness with Chinese schools parochially focused on academics
37:01 Business opportunity for better consumer protection, vendor selection and service review in contracting
40:44 Concerns about manufacturing leaving China thanks to anti-dumping regulations

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Jie Zhang has been an instructor, administrator and leader of American education institutions for more than three decades. She began her career teaching math to prisoners on Rikers Island (New York). Her most well-known positions included principal of the Ivy League feeder Stuyvesant High School, and principal of the now Chinese company-owned New York Military Academy, which US President Trump attended. She recently returned to China to run two international high schools.

Besides recounting her eclectic career, she also shared stories of helping prisoners get high school degrees, challenges in teaching American high schoolers as a foreigner, her firsthand experience dealing with pressure to democratize enrollment at magnet public schools, making decision to return to China despite overwhelming opposition from family and friends, and cherishment of the exciting work environment and an energetic team of coworkers at the two Chinese schools she now manages.

• Jie Zhang: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jie-zhang-67a97620/
• Stuyvesant High School ("Stuy"): https://stuy.enschool.org/
• New York Military School: https://www.nyma.org/
• Hongwen School: http://www.hongwenschool.com.cn/

0:00 Teaser
1:01 Host monologue
4:32 Guest self-intro
11:20 Pressure of running international schools amid China-US tension
15:55 Coronavirus deepened financial woes of US private schools (pre-college) that preceded the pandemic
22:04 Journey to State University of New York at Stony Brook and family ties to Chinese Physicist CN Yang
27:50 First job teaching math at a prison in Rikers Island in New York City
35:54 Transition to teaching regular schools, and challenges of teaching Americans as a foreigner
42:53 Her son (Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, startup) and daughter (Berkeley, speech pathology studies)
45:18 Transition from purely instructive to administrative roles
51:56 Willingness to take risks plays big role in advancing her educational career from teaching at schools to leading schools to returning to China
1:01:03 Assignment to “clean up” Stuyvesant after test-cheating scandal as interim principal
1:06:15 Natural esconsement to permanent principal as the first China Mainland born principal at Stuyvesant
1:09:36 Her response to public pressure to remove academically focused entrance tests for magnet schools like Stuy in the name of equity and inclusiveness
1:21:44 Chinese parents’ general anxiety and formulaic approach on getting kids to Ivy League
1:32:33 Kids at the academic “bottom” 5% at Stuy still do well in life
1:40:49 Leaving Stuy partially due to significant red tape and a lack of autonomy
1:46:00 Move to lead recently out-of-bankruptcy New York Military Academy, increasing communication with China education institutions not previously available at public school
1:50:00 Growing interest and increasingly clear reasons for leading American-style secondary education in China
1:55:11 Making decision to return to China at late 50s against overwhelming opposition from family and friends
1:59:28 Contrast the more lively, positive and cooperative Chinese colleagues with American colleagues seeking stability and resisting change
2:03:47 Clash with the ways of Chinese education admin lifers from local public school system
2:10:28 Strong pride in being able to make unique and significant contribution, and fierce love for passionate and diligent colleagues
2:13:08 Managing and dealing with people at work is just as hard between America and China
2:17:32 Strong chemistry between energetic Chinese subordinates welcoming western management methods and expat leaders tired of managing uninspiring and inert public sector Americans
2:25:30 Emphasis on mutual respect regardless of status as her management style
2:32:32 Anecdote of helping a sincere and unassuming Chinese grandpa on high speed train, as an illustration of her drive to excel in positions with no direct fame or monetary reward

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Morgan Jones is a Black American that previously spent six years in China as a radio host, movie production assistant and EMBA English teacher. He is a “Chinese son-in-law” (中国女婿), a self-described Tiger Dad (“虎爸”) and a fluent Mandarin speaker.

He got his EMBA from Cornell and bachelors from Middlebury College, or 明德大学 in Chinese.

This episode was recorded in Mandarin. We discussed Morgan’s adventures in China, takeaways from his marriage to a Chinese woman, his relationship with Chinese in-laws, growing up Black in the US, and other American race issues such as affirmative action and recent police involved incidents.

We discussed:

• Host of a jazz radio show in Shanghai
• Teaching English to execs 20 years his senior at Nanjing University EMBA program
• Learning about Nanking massacre as an assistant for Chinese movie production
• Personal experience of semi-discrimination against Blacks in China
• Reaction to detergent commercial that turns a black person into a white person
• Minor cultural difference with his Chinese wife
• Relationship with Chinese in-laws, especially when it comes to getting their help in raising grandchildren
• Self-branded Tiger Dad
• Recent and past race related tragedies and conflicts in the US
• Call for stronger focus in building community relations in police departments
• Growing up Black in America
• Affirmative action (CA Prop 16 re-allowing racial preference to raise black/latinx representation in public colleges)

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Professor Anne Chao is a Chinese modern historian that lectures at Rice University. She is also manager of the Houston Asian American Archive, an oral history archive that looks to document the challenges faced and contributions made by the Asian American community.

As the daughter of a Taiwanese diplomat, Anne moved between Congo, Australia, Washington DC, and Taiwan as a kid. Her Ph.D. dissertation was on the social networks of Chen Duxiu, co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party and publisher of the influential magazine Xin Qingnian, or New Youth.

In this interview, we covered her multi-continental childhood, views on Asian’s involvement in politics, a history of discrimination suffered by Asian Americans, inspiring stories from the Houston Asian American archive, and her work on Chen Duxiu.

Houston Asian American Archive (HAAA) oral histories: https://haaa.rice.edu/

• Intro
• Multi-continental childhood between Congo, Australia, Washington DC and Taiwan
• Nativism, liberalism, populism of major Western countries today
• Black Lives Matter awakens Asian Americans to more active political participation
• A brief history of discrimination of Chinese, Japanese and Indian Americans
• Asians’ general inactiveness in the American political process
• Age-old question of mainstream assimilation for Asian Americans
• Stories from Houston Asian American Archive
• China’s history around the rise of Chen Duxiu and his publication 新青年

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Rui Ma is an investment banker (Morgan Stanley) turned VC (500 Startups) turned podcast host (Tech Buzz China). Her show covers current tech trends in China, with a focus on power players such as ByteDance and Alibaba. Her diaspora journey included a childhood in the China countryside, college and grad school education in the US, a career of finance/tech in Shanghai/Beijing, and podcast operations from Silicon Valley.

We discussed Bytedance ban, Niall Ferguson's "TikTok = China's digital imperium ambitions" quote, Chinese female diaspora experience, China's sexist society, the notorious 996, her podcast-turned-business and more!

Tech Buzz China podcast: https://pandaily.com/podcast/
Rui’s newsletter: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/techbuzzchina/
Rui's twitter: https://twitter.com/ruima

Rui shared with us:

• Childhood in China's countryside, California education, work in China, return to Silicon Valley

• The businesslines and ambitions of ByteDance

• ByteDance acquisition of Musical.ly

• ByteDance reaction to TikTok ban

• Chinese netizens reaction to TikTok ban

• ByteDance's negative reputation in China (similar to local gaming industry)

• Niall Ferguson's demonization of TikTok as China's weaponization against the West

• China bashing recently arose from a corner of Silicon Valley Twitter

• Pandemic-induced lockdown has strengthened echo chambers on social media

• US' negative attitude on immigration deters inflow of intellectual capital

• US still top destination of tech and research talents

• Notorious 9-9-6 work schedule in China

• Tradeoffs associated with living in China as expat

• Female expat's unpleasant experience in China's sexist society

• Chinese tech podcast forces the host to do more bigger-picture research than as an venture investor

• Bringing interested podcast listeners (pubic equity investors) to visit Chinese tech giants

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Jing Cheng is the co-founder and CEO of the largest North American Children's Chinese magazine, Pipa Magazine. She shares her inspirations for starting the publication, the challenges of running the business of print media against digital headwinds, and her philosophy and suggestions for Chinese immigrants raising bilingual kids.

To learn more about Pipa Magazine, visit: pipamag.org

You can also subscribe to their WeChat public account by searching for 小枇杷

Jing shared with us:

• Pipa Magazine as a companion to kids and bridge to communicate with older generations

• Why young kids like to read the same books repeatedly

• Self-identity for kids with Chinese heritage

• Learning Chinese culture in addition to the language

• Maintaining emotional intimacy between first and second generation immigrants

• Immigrant parents need continual self education to keep up with kids' American ideas

• Pipa Magazine's way of teaching Chinese language in the context of Chinese culture

• The development of Pipa Magazine as a business since 2012

• The difficult business of the Chinese culture-themed magazine

• Pipa Magazine as between a nonprofit organization and a commercial business

• How donations can help Pipa Magazine's missions

Jing shared with us:

• Pipa Magazine as a companion to kids and bridge to communicate with older generations

• Why young kids like to read the same books repeatedly

• Self-identity for kids with Chinese heritage

• Learning Chinese culture in addition to the language

• Maintaining emotional intimacy between first and second generation immigrants

• Immigrant parents need continual self education to keep up with kids' American ideas

• Pipa Magazine's way of teaching Chinese language in the context of Chinese culture

• The development of Pipa Magazine as a business since 2012

• The difficult business of the Chinese culture-themed magazine

• Pipa Magazine as between a nonprofit organization and a commercial business

• How donations can help Pipa Magazine's missions

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Sixiang Wang is an assistant professor in Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA, specializing in Korea’s premodern history. He speaks fluent mandarin, writes Chinese poems and is well-versed in China's history and culture. Sixiang described his journey of attempting to self-distance from his Chinese identity to embracing and mastering the language and culture. He shared how studying Korean history somehow helped him reconcile a lifelong passion for Chinese studies with his American identity. We also talked about the current state of Sino-US relation and analogized Trump's presidency with past Chinese emperors. Lastly, we touched upon Sixiang's philosophy of child-raising that deviates from the traditional Chinese parenting style.

Sixiang shared with us:

• Guest intro
• Growing up in a rough Queens Hispanic neighborhood as "the only Chino"
• Childhood struggles between desire to be American vs love for Chinese language & culture
• Epiphany in reconciling American and Chinese identity from reading Korean history
• Sentiment towards US-China tensions from a Chinese American perspective
• Ways to understand Trump presidency, e.g., the angle of history of Chinese emperors
• De-emphasizing goals of admittance to top colleges and high test scores in raising children

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Nuo Yan is a Tokyo-based software architect. He was previously based in Seattle and San Francisco, and was founding engineer at multiple tech startups, one of which was acquired by Pinterest. Nuo discussed his philosophy of avoiding shortcuts in software design and implementation, the purpose of life as completing a journey instead of checking boxes, and why Japan is a great place to live for him.

Nuo shared with us:

• Joining a startup right out of undergrad
• Reluctance in taking shortcuts in code (or in life)
• Anxiety of China citizens explained by country's rapid rise, similar to 90s Japan
• Japan's extremely stable and equitable society
• Why Japan's life quality trumps that in the US for Asians
• Friendly Japan immigration policies
• Japan's startup scene doesn't measure up to that in the US/China
• Exploration of why Japan feels like Nuo's home city (nowhere else does)
• Decision to become a software engineer very early in life
• Why being treated as a foreigner in Japan is a good thing

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Jingzhu Yang started her PR company AmeriChina to bring Chinese companies to high-end and exclusive American events, such as Victoria's Secret Fashion Show and charity dinners with ex US presidents. In the peak year of her business, the company made revenues of 10M RMB (1.5M USD).

Jingzhu covered these topics:

• Why she started AmeriChina

• AmeriChina business case: VidCon LA

• More business cases, including charity dinners with ex-US presidents

• How US-China relation affects business

• What uniquely contributed to her success

• How she tried to matchmake west-coast boys with east-coast girls

• Chinese women's advantage over Chinese men as entrepreneurs

• Family influence on entrepreneurship

• Her observation of lives of kids from wealthy/elitist Chinese families in the US

• Getting used to China's natural environment

• Finding love with non-Chinese men

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Robbie Yan is cofounder of a quantitatively driven hedge fund based in China. We talked about the nature of quantitative investing, governmental efficiency in China and associated tradeoffs, argument for protection of privacy, China's startup scene, and more.

Robbie shared with us:

• What makes good quant traders

• Mistakes that might occur in quant trading

• Competitive landscape in quant trading in China

• Motivations in starting a quant hedge fund

• Advantages of Scandinavian countries

• Public infrastructure efficiency in China

• Safety in China amid mass surveillance

• Argument for protecting privacy

• Tradeoffs of bias vs variance in political systems

• Convenience of payment tech in China

• Power of consumer super-apps in China

• Successful startups in China